In efforts to educate and inspire others about the significance of living more sustainably, we are pleased to be offering free workshops to the community at the Galvez Garden!

Today we held our first workshop, Composting and Vermiculture in the Garden with LSUAg Master Gardener, Lissie Stewart. We were thrilled that, despite this being the same week as Mardi Gras, we had a great turn out! Over a dozen individuals visited our garden to learn about the benefits of composting and how to easily incorporate red wiggler worm into the garden as a way to improve soil health, increase the nutritional value of food grown, divert waste from our landfills, and assist in purifying and replenishing our local water sources.

We gave a tour of the garden and spent 2 hours with a smaller group of sustainability enthusiasts, discussing other issues regarding our climate and particular environmental impacts we face as New Orleanians. What began as a discussion about sustainability through compost and vermicompost practices quickly turned into a larger conversation about struggles with city-wide issues related to living below sea level and flooding. The group shared resources with one another and the organization had a blast working together to come up with individualized solutions for our guests. The Incubator sent attendees home with basil and native swamp sunflower seeds, and of course, shared our harvest with participants.

We’re excited to be offering a new workshop each month; thanks to the support of the New Orleans Culture and Recreation Fund. We plan to offer workshops at the Galvez Garden February through May, on Sundays to coincide with our community compost collection day. In Partnership with LSUAg Master Gardeners and as a Master Gardener Project Site, we revel in the opportunity to share our knowledge of gardening with others! It’s our hope that by offering these workshops we can inform more people of the importance of individuals working collectively for the common good. We gathered three bins of food scraps today that will be composted, used to feed our vegetable garden nutrients, and ultimately help in our efforts to sustainably grow food to be shared with community members.

In March we plan to focus on propagation and seed starting, providing community members the tools they need to grow their own gardens. We’re so grateful for our partnership with Compost NOW, gaining us a devoted group of individuals invested in diverting food waste from ending up as access methane gas in our landfills by consistently dropping of their food scraps. It was lovely meeting new residents interested in doing more to help protect our environment, and we can’t wait for next month’s programming! Stay tuned!